Title: Learning With Hugh Moss / Recipe To Collecting Snuff Bottles Post by: George on July 19, 2011, 04:49:06 pm The following is from the #7 January 1973 Snuff Bottle Collector pamphlet.
The Circuitous Cook Book On How To Slice Your Snuff Bottle Pie And Get Four Quarters Instead of Five :) This is the recipe, which if followed correctly, and adhered to in every detail through the long painful progress of its growth, will not only allow your efforts to burst forth eventually into full flowered print, but, rarer than this, the fruits of your work might actually make sense, and contribute to our doubtless fascinating and time absorbing hobby. (https://snuffbottle.smfforfree.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1226.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fee408%2Fbottlesandstone%2Freceipe.jpg&hash=bb03b8a14730561db1620633a05072f8) The Recipe.... Ingredients Courage: A considerable amount is better, but if the reader is unfortunate enough to live in a prt of the world or under curcumstances where this comodity is in short supply, just a pinch will do. Enthusiasm: A good deal is required for the best results, but is is wise not to be over generous with this as, in the unwary, it can lead to a lamentable excess of wrong assumptions, which will eventually overpower other neccessary ingredients. Photographic Memory: This is perhaps one of the two most important ingredients. It takes but a small test upon the parto of the would be researcher to convince himself that photographs are an essential part of this recipe. Look at an inside painted snuff bottle for two or three minutes, nothing strenuous, just an idle glance or two over a well chosen iced drink. Then having put it away for a day, try to recall to your no doubt confident mind exactly its shape, subject (in minute detail), inscriptions (character by character), date, signature, seal etc. If you can even get close, try it after a week, then see how well you fare. Then consider that accurate research might well be based on the actual style of calligraphy of a dozen different bottles or maybe a hundred, and see how obviously inadequate your memory is. Method Take your courage and enthusiasm in both hands. Fit your subject to your courage and enthusiasm. For the sake of this ill tuned waste of paper, let us assume that wehave very little couratge and only enough enthusiasm to take on a relatively small are of the field. Perhaps snuff bottles made by that artist of considerable quality but regrettably sleepy nature who applied his pen to the interior of his bottls only on odd occassions when lucky omens, inner good will, shunshine and a pressing need of a piece of silver or two with which to partake of a reasonable meal at a nearby inn. All combined to move his artistic integrity to paint. What is undoubtedly needed a this stage is not only as many photographs of bottles as possible, but a copy of everything ever written about him. System: An ingredient which tends to change depending upon circumstances. I am sure it will not escape those who still cling to the thread of this narrative in the increasingly vain hope that their effort will be rewarded in some small fasion, that a pile of unruly photographs and pampllets would be harder to work with than those neatly filed with suitable annotations as to their ownership, size, provenance and so on. Logic: Ahhh, Logic ! That most mysterious and elusive ingredient. Take your system of photographs and affiliated accoutrements, and analyze them logically. Briefly, as an example, you must first look to see how many dates there are on the bottles. In this way you will discover his approximate working period. This is of course assuming that you have first satisfied yourself that all those you have photographed are his genuine works. For instance, if ninety are of similar style and quality, and one is completely different, poorer, and not as pleasing, then obviously you must suspect the ninety to be copies. Occasional bottles will also tell you where he worked, and perhaps his age at a particular date, and so forth. In no time at all you build up a picture of the artist which if published would bring international acclaim, and the rattling of well filled sleeves. The first such pitfall is that of taking the fruit which hangs near to the road, without first examining those beyond ones immediate reach. A judicious example of this would be the researcher who upon finding a brilliant apple green colored stone bottle turns to his books and finds that jade can be apple green, and so things "Viola" it must be jade. He will then pursue this line of thought, and perhaps learn that this shade of jade was only found in the early 19th century ans was quickly used up. Obviously therefore, one must explore all the possibilites before making a decision. Lastly, as Confucius himself said, "never be afraid of a loose end". In any research there will always be the things you can prove are one thing and the things you can prove are quite another, and then several groups between about which you are not yet sure, and as long as you don't feel that you have to make yup your ind despite a lack of evidence with which to do so, you will be safe. Research in practically every field since time immemorial has suffered from those sexperts who feel they have to state everything as fact ans are afraid to write that they are not sure about something. Thanks Hugh ! :D . Title: Re: Learning With Hugh Moss / Recipe To Collecting Snuff Bottles Post by: Pat - 查尚杰 on July 19, 2011, 07:07:15 pm Yes.. these are good tips.
Title: Re: Learning With Hugh Moss / Recipe To Collecting Snuff Bottles Post by: Pat - 查尚杰 on July 19, 2011, 07:21:34 pm George. Thanks very much for sharing and posting these. However, just a word of caution on this. It seems that often you copy the information verbatim from existing sources without referencing and quoting the official source (the thanks Hugh legally does not qualify ;D) . This could be construed as copyright violations, and may get you and the website/forum host into trouble,.. I don't mean to stop this great flow of info, but on the other hand, want to make sure we don't get our wings clipped in any way.
Hope you don't mind me saying this! Just trying to help... Title: Re: Learning With Hugh Moss / Recipe To Collecting Snuff Bottles Post by: George on July 19, 2011, 09:24:52 pm Hope you don't mind me saying this! Just trying to help... Not at all.. I will add that information right away.. Title: Re: Learning With Hugh Moss / Recipe To Collecting Snuff Bottles Post by: Peter Bentley 彭达理 on July 20, 2011, 09:04:35 am Hi George
However did you dig up that old article? That was Hugh Moss almost 40 years ago, which must be when he was in his 20's. I heard somewhere that Hugh's father had an anitique business ( I think it was paintings),which Hugh inherited, so he learned the "trade" very early in life. Can't remember when Hugh got into snuff bottles, but one can see the enthusiasm of a young collector in what he wrote all those years ago And it's still very true today. One does need all those 5 tools ( or virtues depending on how one views them), especially courage and enthusiasm . To some extent the use of computers and digital cameras simplifies photographic memory and method, which why I devoted so much time to downloading Bill's website, studying and scanning books, and photographing every bottle I see, whether I buy it or not, and finally building the data base. And of couse ... logic, which has led us on the forum into the whole murky area of multiple copies of the same bottle ( and/or unsigned practice bottles which find their way to the market when young artists are short of cash to pay this month's bills) I am now in BJ . and as usual I have visited the local bottle shop in the Landmark Hotel shopping arcade where I bought several of my early bottles. The owner, whom I know ( and his wife) have virtually given up selling "prime" bottles because they say they must pay so much for them that even after huge discount from the shy-high asking prices ( US$ 1,000 - 1,500 ) they cannot make any money. There's one bottle by Yu Nong which I quite like which I refuse to pay more than RMB4,000 for, but for which they refuse to charge less than RMB4,500 . I will keep going back to the shop every time I'm in BJ , which is roughly once per month, and see if eventually I can whittle them down. Gave them a copy of the DB today as a gift , so maybe that will soften them up. BUT........ and here's a real shocker ! I had heard via the Hengshui grapevine that there's a guy who often buys bottles in HS for a specialist bottle shop in BJ's premier art emporium in WangFuJing Street, which street is BJ's premier shopping area ( sort of like The Strand in London) . So I decided to seek out this shop today, and when I got there it was obviously a sort of Chinese " CAC" ( CAC is HK's premier Chinese Arts and Crafts chain of stores - some fantastic things there for sale . And one particular CAC store is where the artist-of-the-month comes ) I was therefore quite excited as I went in, and was asking myself why - in 25 years of going to BJ - I had never heard of this place. Certianly, so I thought, there would be some great bottles on display When I finally found the bottle section I was totally shocked. Very few bottles, mostly junk ( far lower quality than the RMB 200 - 300 student bottle shelves in Wang Xisan's HS Museum, where one can find some beautiful bottles ) - in fact just tourist junk, but at true artist prices : RMB3,000 - 5,000 ! Then, a little corner with a handful of bottles obviously a bit more professionally painted ( but none of which I liked in the least ) and at prices in the RMB80,000 = US$ 12,000 range ! I kid you not. Wish I had taken my camera just to prove it. These were bottles that I would not pay more than RMB1,500 ( US$250) max for direct from an artist in HS and marked up FIFTY TIMES ! Needless to say I left the place in a hurry ......... Cheers Peter Title: Re: Learning With Hugh Moss / Recipe To Collecting Snuff Bottles Post by: George on July 20, 2011, 10:12:16 am ( and/or unsigned practice bottles which find their way to the market when young artists are short of cash to pay this month's bills) LOL ! I can say that there are a couple of Hugh's tools that are in my toolbox... Method... The method to my purchasing madness is patience.. I patiently search for that seller who does not know that what they are selling is even a snuff bottle. That combined with when the same seller offers it at a super cheap "buy it now" as compared to auction bidding.. Logic... As you mentioned the internet has made researching and sharing with other collectors much easier.. Enthusiasm..... I have more than a pinch of :D I found the pamphlet that this article was in on eBay.. Maybe that CAC shop sells a lot of those junk type bottles to tourists.. Title: Re: Learning With Hugh Moss / Recipe To Collecting Snuff Bottles Post by: owly on March 26, 2014, 11:02:01 am If my memory does not fail me, Hugh Moss is seen on a photograph in the Bonham's catalogue of the Paul Braga collection of Nov 24 2012. The Picture was taken in Hong Kong and Hugh must have been quite young, perhaps in his late twenties or so, together with P.Braga, John Ault and others. This would make ca 1970. But he is right. I might add: Exercise in the form of inspecting (or handling) as many bottles, in catalogue or in real (expositions etc) is of the essential. Like a piano player has to train at least once a day one shold read or watch snuff bottles daily in one form or other. But a photographic memory would not be of harm. :)
owly Title: Re: Learning With Hugh Moss / Recipe To Collecting Snuff Bottles Post by: Wattana on March 26, 2014, 09:18:42 pm Owly,
Thanks for resurrecting this interesting old post. I have not read it before. Tom Title: Re: Learning With Hugh Moss / Recipe To Collecting Snuff Bottles Post by: TheTalyaDCollection on March 05, 2015, 09:49:36 pm Great post.Personally I have too much enthusiasm and courage and not enough logic...working on improving the balance :)
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